1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for acquiring content from content acquisition routes, which include broadcast radio waves and networks, and recording the content.
2. Description of the Related Art
Advances continue to be made in broadcast techniques such as digital terrestrial broadcasting and satellite broadcasting, and network infrastructure for ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) and optical fiber, etc., is being built. This has been accompanied by the ability to acquire content the semantic substance of which is identical although the format and amount of data, etc., differ.
For example, in a case where a certain drama program is to be viewed, it is possible to view the drama upon receiving it over various routes, such as by broadcast or re-broadcast by digital terrestrial broadcasting, analog terrestrial broadcasting and cable TV, and by distribution over the Internet. Although there is the possibility that each item of content will differ in terms of resolution, the presence or absence of commercial messages (CM) and the length thereof, the content is identical in terms of semantic substance, i.e., a drama.
It should be noted that examples of differences between such content are a difference in the image quality of the content owing to a difference in resolution, and whether or not redundant data unrelated to the content is included owing to the presence or absence of CM and length thereof.
Further, it is possible to record a large quantity of content by mounting a large-capacity storage medium as typified by an HDD (hard-disk drive) recorder. In addition, favored content or content desired to be saved can be recorded on a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) or the like and thus preserved for future use.
The recording capacity of storage media such as hard-disk drives will increase greatly in the future as the technology advances. Accordingly, content recording devices having large-capacity storage media such as HDD recorders will be able to record content in greater quantity.
An information recording apparatus that has been proposed heretofore is so adapted that if a program that the user likes included among recorded programs has image quality that is unsatisfactory, then this program is re-recorded. For example, see the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-275072 (Patent Document 1).
However, the quality of content, such as the image quality and sound quality, the presence or absence of redundant data unrelated to the content, the content itself, the route by which the content was acquired and the circumstances at the time of content acquisition, differs.
For example, with regard to the content itself, the quality of the content is influenced by the method that was used to compress the content, the bit rate, the presence or absence of CM and the length thereof, and the unexpected inclusion of Telop such as that of a news flash. With regard to the route of content acquisition, the quality of the content differs depending upon whether it was acquired by analog broadcast or by digital broadcast. As for the circumstances of the time of content acquisition, the quality of content is affected by the influence of weather on radio waves, the presence of noise in the content owing to the load on a network, and resolution.
Accordingly, even if content is viewed and then re-acquired because the quality thereof is unsatisfactory, the quality of the re-acquired content will not necessarily be better than that previously Further, there is also the possibility that good-quality content the semantic substance of which is identical will be obtained from another route of acquisition.
A problem which arises is that in order to judge the quality of content, the user must verify the content fully and then pass judgment. Another problem is that in a case where there are multiple items of content of the same semantic substance acquired over various routes, a great deal of time and effort is required for verification for the purpose of preserving content of good quality.